ended. We’d only just found each other. We’d barely begun. I refused to believe our last moments together were tainted with anger. I was going to get out of here and he was going to be fine.
There was my trusty optimism, right when I needed it.
I decided I had to risk moving a little more to see what I was dealing with. Slowly, I rolled onto my back and turned my head.
Yep. I was being guarded.
And he had a gun.
Because of course he did.
This was nothing like the movies. I wasn’t a badass secret agent or a plucky journalist ready to sass and ass-kick her way out of danger. I was just a girl, tied up on the ground, looking at a scary man with a gun. My heart raced, my body shivered, and all I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball, cover my head, and cry.
I swallowed hard and bit the inside of my lip.
Evan, please be okay. Please let it just be me.
And please let someone find me.
Was there any chance of that? Did anyone know I was gone?
My guard had a shaved head, rough stubble, and merciless eyes. He looked at me without a shred of concern or urgency. I was totally helpless. He had nothing to worry about.
He turned his head. “She’s awake.”
“I have to pee,” I blurted out.
He looked at me again, his brow furrowing in confusion. “What?”
It was true, I did have to pee, but I had no idea why I’d just said it out loud. “There’s probably no bathroom around here, is there?”
“No.”
“Okay. I guess I’ll wait.”
His eyes flicked up and down, from my head to my bound ankles, like I’d just said the weirdest thing he’d ever heard.
Maybe I had. ‘I have to pee’? Who randomly tells their captor they have to pee? It wasn’t even like I had an escape plan that hinged on him letting me get up to use the bathroom.
What was wrong with me?
Oh, right. I’d hit my head. Maybe that was it.
Footsteps approached and a fresh wave of fear made me shiver harder. My back tightened uncomfortably and my head throbbed again. At this point, I hoped I’d get through the next few minutes without puking. Or being shot, but puking felt more imminent.
A man in a button-down shirt and dark slacks came around a corner. He had more silver in his hair and beard than I remembered, but I knew that face. I’d met him many times as a child. I’d once thought he was simply a colleague or a business associate of my dad’s.
Felix Orman.
Tilting his head, he looked down at me like someone might regard a plant or a pattern in a brick path. No emotion, good or bad. There was nothing in his eyes—no malice or anger. No guilt or regret. He looked at me with cold calculation, like he hadn’t been to my tenth birthday party or professed to be a loyal friend to my dad.
I was nothing to him. Just collateral.
Icy terror chilled me from the inside. I was too cold to even shiver anymore.
“Well hi there, Fifi. Lovely to see you again.”
“No it’s not.”
His lips twitched in a smile and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I know the accommodations aren’t exactly comfortable, but the show serves a purpose. Look at me.” He held up the phone and took a picture. “Good girl.”
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure your daddy cooperates. He seems to think I’m bluffing.”
“My dad?”
“He thinks he can disappear on me. I can’t have that. Makes me look weak. Like I can’t take care of business. So I’m offering him a little incentive. That would be you.”
A mix of emotions swirled with the fear that thrummed through me. Relief that my dad didn’t have me kidnapped. Anger that he’d gotten tangled up with this awful man again. Frustration that I had to pay the price for his bad decisions.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“Depends on your father. If he does what I tell him, nothing.”
“You’ll let me go?”
“Of course.”
I looked into those calculating eyes and I knew he was lying. He wasn’t going to let me go.
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about that. He will.” He turned to the guard. “Keep an eye on her. He has an hour.”
Felix left, his footsteps echoing as he walked away. The guard sat down with his back against the wall and took out his phone.
I looked up at the